Effective control is an important aspect of railway train operation, which ensures maximum efficiency of pulling power. Presently, railway train handling efficiency relies on driver's experience, thus only experienced drivers aware of the route control railway trains most effectively.
Below, certain terms used in further description of the invention are defined.
Locomotive efficiency is a ratio of effective work performed by carrying wheels of a locomotive to quantity of work used to perform it in autonomous locomotives having an independent power plant (steam or diesel-powered locomotives), or to the energy obtained from overhead system (in electric locomotives or electric trains). Efficiency of a locomotive depends on efficiency of all units participating in transformation of inputted electric energy into mechanical energy and in transferring it to drive wheels, as well as on expenditure of energy for service and auxiliary purposes. Efficiency of a locomotive can be distinguished into efficiency of a locomotive viewed as a power plant and its operational efficiency, which is a function of a locomotive's operating time in various modes of operation, during a train's motion and of fuel (energy) consumption to maintain the locomotive's operable condition during its stops. During stops, fuel consumption of a steam-powered locomotive is considerably higher than that of a diesel-powered locomotive; energy consumption of an electric locomotive is negligible. A diesel-powered locomotive's efficiency depends on design features of the diesel engine, structure of driving gear, cooling device, auxiliary mechanisms, ambient air temperature and pressure, usable power and other aspects; maximum efficiency of a diesel-powered locomotive is around 30%, its operational efficiency is about 25%. The efficiency of an electric locomotive that does not have an independent power plant is 88-90%, efficiency of electric traction, which includes efficiency of electric power plants, external and traction-power supply devices and electric stock is about 22-24%.
Railway track route (track route) is curvature of a railway defined by its radius.
Track grading is the magnitude of its elevation in relation to a certain point.
Brake discharging value is the drop of pressure in brake pipeline of a train during pneumatic braking.
There are various systems and methods to increase operational efficiency, all of them have certain limitations.
Present technological solutions tend to use average specifications of train.
In production, deviation of up to 10% of actual traction characteristics from specifications assumed for a specific type of locomotive is acceptable. Over the service life, which is more than 30 years, deviation of traction characteristics increases. Actual values of resistance to movement differ from their average values even more. In certain cases, deviation may reach 40%. Actual value of wheel-to-rail traction coefficient has the largest deviation from its average value. Due to certain weather effects and some railway conditions, actual traction coefficient may be 2.5 times less than estimated value, thus accordingly reducing maximum possible value of usable traction effort of a locomotive by 2.5 times.
Present technology includes invention RU2409484 “Method and System for Improvement of Train Driving Technique and Decrease in Fuel Consumption”, GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY (US) published on 20 Jan. 2011. This invention relates to a method and a system to improve train-driving technique. The method involves estimation of a train's weight, determining current location of the locomotive-driven train, detecting sections with alterations of track relief before the moment of the train reaching the section, and adjustment of power output of the locomotive-driven train. The described solution does not use actual (calculated for a specific train) parameters (it uses average values) of traction and braking characteristics, dependencies between resistance to movement and wheel-to-rail traction value, thus control action is less accurate and effective. Calculation of actual values of dependencies of locomotive-driven train and ambient conditions is necessary for calculation of a control action that would minimize energy consumption to ensure effective work.